MAGA Mike LOOKS AWFUL as his ENITRE WORLD is COLLAPSING

Maga Mike Johnson is in a full-fledged panic mode, and as a former Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner once said, he said, talking to the press is like trying to feed alligators without getting bit. Johnson's been feeding the alligators, but the gators are starting to get hungry for some fingers. I like the way that Eric Michael Garcia, citing Fuller, said right there. Now, MAGA Mike Johnson is out there just trying to deflect and say a bunch of nonsense, but

he almost reminds me of that high school student who shows up to do a report without actually preparing, trying to BS his way in front of the press. Meanwhile, 20 million Americans are going to lose their health care while the United States government is giving $20 billion to Argentina for a bailout. And Americans are like, wait a minute, MAGA Mike Johnson continues to send the MAGA Republicans on vacation. They're not even showing up to talk to Democrats. The Democrats are in Washington, D.C., trying to negotiate and come up with something

to save people's health care. But where the hell are the Republicans? They're vacationing and they're giving bailouts to Argentina. They're helping Donald Trump try to build 90,000 square foot golden ballrooms, and they're not here fighting for the American people who are about to lose their health care? What the hell is going on? So MAGA Mike Johnson earlier was asked a question by a reporter.

You know, you realize that among these thousands of jobs that your boss, Donald Trump, is cutting, he's cutting special education services. What's your response there? Maga Mike watch as he nervously tries to BS his way through this one. Let's play this clip.

Speaker. We know the president before with mass layoffs. So we are also learning there were significant cuts to staff at the special education services. Are you comfortable with

those cuts? I haven't seen the specifics of that and I don't know. I do know that each of the cabinet secretaries were asked to assist OMB to determine what the most essential programs are and what the priorities are for the policies and all of that. And I've been so busy on all this, I've not had a chance to dig into the details of each division and how it's happened. I know that HHS, for example, has cut some programs, but they were effectively all agencies in a triage situation.

Because remember, Chuck Schumer and the Democrats turned off the funding for all these things that everybody cares about. And so the executive branch, the Office of Management and Budget, has to determine what are the most efficient and effective programs. It's a difficult task. It's not one that they relish.

They don't want to do it. Listen to the president's own words and Russ Vought's own words and everybody who's involved. They want the government to be opened. They're begging Chuck Schumer and the Democrats. That's how to make all this stop.

They want this to end immediately

and they wanted it to end before it started. Gotta hand it to him. Democratic leader, Hakeem Jeffries, calling MAGA Mike out. He was asked on MSNBC, so have you met with Mike Johnson? Leader Jeffries, as he told us, what, two weeks ago at this point, nope.

Why? Because Donald Trump had ordered leader Jeffries, Senator Thune, who's the leader of the Republicans in the Senate, and all the MAGA Republicans not even to talk to Democrats. Remember like, like five year olds, like when they go blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, you know how they do that? That's what Donald Trump is making Republicans not even engage in discourse. They can't talk

to Donald Trump. They can't talk to Democrats is what Donald Trump ordered here. Play this clip. Have you met with Speaker Mike Johnson?

No, Speaker Mike Johnson and I have not met. They've made the decision. Donald Trump has not given because Donald Trump has not given them permission to meet Katie. And we know that until Donald Trump gives them permission to meet, they're going to continue to hide as it relates to sitting down and negotiating a bipartisan agreement.

Yeah, so then MAGA Mike Johnson again tries to claim, oh, well, actually, why aren't the Democrats here? They are here. It's the Republicans that are there. Go and negotiate with Hakeem Jeffries. Hakeem Jeffries was on the Midas Touch Network,

said, let's do it in public, let's do it in front of the press. I'm happy to debate you. Chuck Schumer said the same thing to the MAGA Republicans. Let's do it in public. Watch what MAGA Mike says.

Here, play this clip. Think about the image of alligators hands, alligators eating your hands.

Here, play this clip. This week it will have been a month since the House has been out. Why are you keeping the House out if you have a lot of other work to do? Are you saying that you can't work on appropriations and other things while the government is shut down? And what do you say to Republicans in your own conference who say, who are critical of this strategy of keeping the House out?

I've heard a criticism from I think three members on our conference call, and since our conference calls leak and they're always spun, that's the fact. You can poll individual House Republicans, maybe you should, and 98.7% of them will tell you that this is the right thing. Why? What you just said is the opposite of what I've said. We are working on appropriations.

That work has been done in earnest. The next package of bills is being prepared. Appropriators are talking not just Republicans and Democrats but across the aisle on that and we can move all that forward. Right now the House Republicans, I don't know what the Democrats are doing, but the House Republicans have been very busy.

They're doing some of their best work in the district, helping their constituents navigate this crisis that's been created by Chuck Schumer and the Democrats. The Schumer shutdown causes real pain for real people, veterans, the elderly, people who rely upon these services, our rural hospitals that have been struggling. Our members are out helping them to access

the rural hospital fund that we created and that the president signed into law on July 4th that no Democrats assisted on. Chuck Schumer wants to take those funds away. They're trying to make sure that the rural hospitals can access them because they know that this effort is underway.

And so our members are doing very productive work. We're in constant communication with them. And we are ready to come back and continue the work in our committees and everything on the House floor. We will return to legislative session as soon as the Democrats come to their senses and open the government. That is a necessity so that the work can continue and the people, the members of Congress can do their jobs.

And that's what we will do. That's our commitment. It always has been. This has to stop. We're on day 13. This should end tomorrow. The Democrats in the Senate's next opportunity to end this, to change this and vote yes and reopen the government will be tomorrow. And I pray that they will do the right thing. And then we'll all get together and have our partisan disputes and discussions on all the issues that remain on the table for the end of the year. We're doing our work behind the scenes.

We're preparing for that moment and we can't wait for it to happen. So the question is for the Democrats, when will Congress get going again? And I hope they answer it affirmatively. Thanks so much.

Then to me, this goes to the central question here. So MAGA Republicans, if you don't believe in universal health care, by the way, the way I believe it, I believe government, I believe that health care should be free, that government should provide it for free, and it should be a human right. Government should protect it as a human right. That's my view. Alternatively, there's Obamacare, which through the Affordable Care Act subsidies has tried to bring the prices down. And before the Affordable Care Act, there were 20 million Americans who were uninsured. So the Affordable Care Act was a step in the right direction, but I agree with the premiums are still too high

on a monthly basis, even with the subsidies, but the subsidies have been helpful. So what the hell is your plan? If you want to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which by the way, it doesn't have its problems, yes, but it's very popular nationwide.

So what is your alternative plan? And you can't just say, Oh, Donald Trump wants to, we're going to reduce prescription drug prices 1600%. That's not a real number. You can't reduce something 1600% and stop talking about secret UFO alien technology, some Q and on conspiracy about med beds, medical beds that cure all cancers and illnesses, which doesn't exist.

What's your actual plan? Remember back in Trump's first administration where he was giving that interview with Leslie Stahl in 60 Minutes and he said that this was my plan and it was hundreds of blank pages when she opened it up.

It's why Donald Trump wouldn't even do any more interviews with 60 Minutes in this most recent election. And then he sued 60 Minutes for some BS about former Vice President Kamala Harris. But remember he said, two weeks plan, two weeks plan. Well, you never rolled out a plan. Watch Mag and Mike fumble the ball here though. And he basically admits they don't have a plan. He's just trying to BS his way

through this. Play this clip. President Obama, you've been very critical in recent days of

Obamacare and some of your members have called for repealing it. Do you support repealing Obamacare and what's your health care plan? We worked on repealing and replacing Obamacare back in 2017. I still have PTSD from the experience. You remember that John McCain famously did the thumbs down and effectively by a one vote margin, the whole effort was defeated. It's a great frustration of mine

and it has always been of President Trump's. And we know that American health care needs dramatic reform. Let's just state it simply, Obamacare failed the American people. It was promised to be a great success to make health care more affordable. It's done exactly the opposite and it has been pointed out by everyone that since Obamacare was created in 2010, premiums, the cost of health care, have risen exponentially. It's skyrocketed to the point where it's no longer affordable for so many Americans. And the access to care has been reduced and the quality of care in some regions of the country

has been reduced. We have to reverse all of that. And we have plans to do it. The Republican Party is the party that has the plans to fix it. Can we completely repeal and replace Obamacare? Many of us are skeptical about that now because the roots are so deep. It was really sinister, in my view, the way it was created. I believe Obamacare was created to implode upon itself, to collapse upon itself. I think the people who

drafted that, the architects of it, knew that it would not be sustainable because their objective was ultimately a single-payer system. They wanted full government control of health care. That's a terrifying prospect for those of us who believe in low-cost, high-quality care. And so we have lots of ideas on how to fix it, but it is very, very complicated. It involves a big percentage of the U.S. economy. Healthcare is entwined with somewhere, I think it's 15 percent of the U.S. economy is the healthcare system. And you can't just rip

it out at the roots and start over. It's a very, very complicated series of measures and steps that you have to take to fix it. Now, it takes a long time to build consensus in a legislative body to do those kinds of things. And we have lots of plans on the table. We have whole caucuses who work on this around the clock all the time.

When I was the chair of the Republican Study Committee, which is the largest caucus of conservatives in Congress, back in the hundred and, let's see, was that the 117th Congress? We drafted a book this thick. We worked on it for almost a year.

And we had a prescription for how to lower cost of care, make the quality higher and make accessibility greater. And so we have formulated all these ideas, but we've got to build a consensus to do that. And we were in the process of that.

So when everything you just heard right there seems like an attack on 99% of the American population, and you're like, don't they actually represent constituents? They represent a group of individuals, not constituents, but big corporate interests. So the way you can explain this government shutdown right now and everything that's just been taking place, return on investment. And when the big corporations and special interests were pushing the Citizens

United decision in order to put limitless money into the electoral process to almost quite literally own politicians by saying, look, we as corporations, we're like human beings. We have first amendment rights to just give unlimited money. Isn't that what the first amendment said that we should be able to give billions of dollars to just own politicians? Well, they want their return on investment.

They want their tax cuts. They want their 25th private jet because 20 private jets are just not enough. And they got to pay for those extra five private jets somewhere. And guess what? Your healthcare, that could be a little bit expensive.

Your subsidies, they want to take those subsidies because it's just not enough to have the subsidies that the billionaires have already been given. And also you wanna wonder, well, why is it that 20 million Americans may be losing their health insurance,

but we gave $20 billion to Argentina? Well, those corporations have lithium interests in Argentina and investments in Argentina. So that's why Argentina is more important than 20 million Americans getting healthcare. Here to explain how this government shutdown

is really being driven by the same special interests who brought you that Citizens United decision is Tiffany Mueller, president of End Citizens United. And Tiffany, I think that this is not being discussed enough that yes, this is a Trump government shutdown and a Republican government shutdown,

but who are they doing it for? They're also doing it for the people who are giving them the money, their buddies, the people who are hanging out at Club Rose Garden and the people who are promoting the new Trump 90,000 square foot golden ballroom.

That's their crew, isn't it? That's exactly right, Ben. promoting the new Trump 90,000 square foot golden ballroom. That's their crew, isn't it?

That's exactly right, Ben. And thanks so much for having me on. But I think what we're seeing in this shutdown is what their priorities are. And their priorities are really simple. It's all about rewarding their big corporate donors,

their big mega donors, the big billionaires with the largest tax break in US history, right? We're not talking just any old tax break. We're talking about the largest tax break in US history and they made it permanent. And how are they gonna pay for it?

Well, they're gonna pay for it by ripping healthcare away from tens of millions of people and forcing premiums every single month to skyrocket. I mean, we're already seeing examples of what these rising costs are gonna, cost the average family,

and you're seeing things go from like $400 a month up to 1200, $1600 a month just to afford healthcare. But who's pocketing that money, right? Well, big insurance, big pharma, big corporations are lining their pockets and getting a return on investment from helping elect Donald Trump and this Republican majority.

So this shutdown is really simply about who is getting screwed and who is having their pockets padded. And we know that it is the big money interests that are grifting their way to the top right now.

Yeah, you know, it's being exposed to because Trump's trying to use the usual playbook to cause the distraction for the special interests and for the crew. All right, let's blame migrants. Let's blame transgender people. Marx is communist. Should we throw that out? I mean, let's blame Democrats for hurting the troops. And people are like, what are you even talking about? Like, healthcare matters to me, like I need it.

So you can't blame this on migrants. And it's just not landing the same. And so I think there is this reckoning or realization among people now of like, like, how did we get here? You know, and I think that people talk about

the Citizens United decision, but sometimes it is talked about as a talking point versus as a, this is why we're here. Like we didn't have to be here and just remind our people of what a significant ruling that was

and why that ruling got us here.

Yeah, so for all those who don't read Supreme Court cases, just for fun, the Citizens United ruling 15 years ago basically allowed for unlimited and undisclosed donations to flood into our politics. It said money is speech, and it said corporations are people,

and it put a for sale sign on our democracy. And now what we're seeing is the culmination of living 15 years under that ruling, and the very real, very day-to-day costs of that ruling. So look, whether one of your top priorities is gun violence or climate change

or lowering prescription drug prices, or how about an economy that works for everyone, the gridlock and dysfunction that we see in Congress, the inability to do anything can all be traced back to the big moneyed interests that are now flooding the system with money. So I'll give an example, climate change, right?

Prior to the Citizens United ruling, there was about 14 instances of Senate Republicans joining with Senate Democrats to actually address and do some common sense legislation to address the impacts of climate change. After Citizens United, big oil and gas

became the number one spender for Republicans. And guess how many times Republicans have joined Democrats since then to take on climate change? That's right, zero, absolutely none. And that's what you see time and time again. So with this shutdown, what you're seeing is once again,

the Republican Party rewarding their big donors, whether it's big pharma that spends $300 million every single election cycle, or big health insurance companies, or just the big mega donors and billionaires who want more money in their pocket, like you said, they need

their hundred and twenty-fifth private jet, that is who the Republican Party is working for. And the American people are the ones being left out in the cold and their costs are continuing to go up, whether it is the cost of groceries, which can be traced back to both the tariffs and big ad consolidation, whether it is the rising cost of healthcare that we're getting ready to see skyrocket so that they can pay for these big billionaire tax breaks.

This all goes back to who these Republican members are working for, and it's not for the people. And look, the American people are sick of it. They absolutely are sick of it. They see the brazen corruption, they see the pay-to-play politics, and they want change. And so that's what we're fighting to do every single day, is actually help bring that change to Washington. And so one of the things I want to make sure

that we tell people about is actually there's a whole bunch of candidates and members who are running to do some common-sense changes to get some of this corruption out of the system. We just rolled out our Unrig Washington campaign with more than a hundred people on it already and it does three simple things. It says look if you're a member of Congress, you shouldn't be trading stocks because you shouldn't be lining your own pocket from a congressional

seat to they're not going to take corporate PAC money because again, we need to make sure that the public officials are working for the people. And three, we're going to get this dark money and this unlimited money out of the system.

You know, there was once upon a time though. And three, we're gonna get this dark money and this unlimited money out of the system.

You know, there was once upon a time though, and I wanna remind our viewers, bipartisan solutions to problems. I mean, there was not to suggest that they were perfect solutions, but you had McCain, fine gold campaign finance reform that did its best to try to deal with the issue,

Republican and Democrats coming together. You know, and I'll also even go back, campaign finance reform that did its best to try to deal with the issue, Republican and Democrats coming together. And I'll also even go back, although it's not on the topic of elections, but whether you had the Civil Rights Act or the Voting Rights Act, which now in 2025 are viewed in very kind of controversial ways, and this provision's being struck down. These were bipartisan, all the environmental legislation.

I mean, heck, Richard Nixon put forward a lot of this environment. Nixon put forward environmental protection stuff. So it's, you know, when I teach my law class, I often just ask the students in a very non-political way, who thinks that we could pass legislation

that would create the Environmental Protection Agency or campaign finance today or civil rights acts today or voting rights? Who thinks in 2025, we could do this? Not a single person raises their hand. No one thinks that we could.

And it's such a sad state that we weren't actually always this way. So I think that when you take a look at what, you know, your organization is doing, what End Citizens United is doing, it's actually reflecting a very bipartisan position of what things used to be that now all of a sudden is being viewed through this lens of a hyper-partisanship, but it's not.

It's like just get, let's do what lots of other countries do, get this money out of politics. Before we go, where can people find out though about the Unrigged campaign and anything else you want to say before we go?

Well, you're absolutely right. I mean, throughout our country's history we've really seen this push-pull between power in the hands of the people and power being grabbed by just a few select organizations or mega donors. And we have fought back against this before. I mean, if you look at the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era, not only

did we fight back, but we put in changes and we were able to keep those changes in place for a hundred years. So I believe we can get back to a day where we can govern and we can have bipartisanship and we can actually make these changes. But to do that, we have to have the right people in office and we have to have the right policies.

So to find out more, go to unrigwashington.org and you can see the over 100 members and candidates who have joined on to these really common sense anti-corruption solutions, unrigwashington.org. Get involved with us. Go to incitizensunited.org and sign up. We are holding shut down town halls. We are organizing to keep pressure on members of Congress. And we are fighting every day to do common sense things

like a stock trading ban.

Tiffany Muller from End Citizens United appreciate you for joining us.

Thanks so much for having me.

Everybody hit subscribe. Let's get to 6 million subscribed.

Love this video? Love this video?

Support independent media and unlock exclusive content, ad-free videos and custom emojis 6 million subscribers.